Irene has always been our "special fish". We got her at PETCO (yeah, not a great plan, figured that out too late..), and she was just a tiny little blue betta, still adolescent. However, since getting her, her condition has gotten worse and worse. For one, she hasn't grown at all, and is still the tiny, runt size that we got her at. This isn't really the disconcerting part, though. Her fins started virtually disappearing, first appearing ragged, and now she has no tail (almost looks like something big took a bite out of her back end) and a "gimpy fin". Her back curves in a strange way, almost as if she is cringing or as if the disintegration of her tail fin has affected her spine or nervous system. At one point, we saw visible fungus growing on her tail stub, and we medicated her for it. It's gone now, but I'm still really worried and scared as to whether she'll be okay. It's possible that the initial tattering of the fins may have had something to do with the other fish in our tank, but we quickly pulled her out of there to heal (though it just got worse to the point it's at now, even being separated). Lately she doesn't eat very much, although we've been trying very hard to get her to eat things like frozen brine shrimp (one of the only things she really shows interest in). I really want to help her, but I don't know what to do.. :( Right now she's in a breeder box inside of our tank, to protect her from getting nipped while keeping her near the other fish.

Ya i would suggest getting a fish bowl or vase for her, so you can do 100% water changes every day after a salt bath. Also start a 7 day cycle of meta fix, it got all my fish to stop loosing there finnage, but they are still growing it back, that part may take the longest.

Ya i would suggest getting a fish bowl or vase for her, so you can do 100% water changes every day after a salt bath. Also start a 7 day cycle of meta fix, it got all my fish to stop loosing there finnage, but they are still growing it back, that part may take the longest.

Will definitely start treating her with salt baths and betta fix, and let you know how it goes. We've tried putting her in a bowl, though, and even though the water is much cleaner, it seems to severely worsen her condition. She literally seems on the verge of death if we leave her in a vase or bowl for more than a couple hours, but is more lively and calm if we put her in the breeder box within our female betta community tank. Also, when she's in the community tank (especially in the breeder box), she'll sit at the top so that she can reach the air easily, but when she's in a bowl, she'll sit at the top for awhile, and eventually go down to sit at the bottom. When this happens, every time she needs to go up for air, she seems to really struggle, like she waited too long to go up for air and at the same time is too weak to get to the top. This seems to get worse and worse when she's in a bowl to the point where after a few minutes of her on the bottom, we have to nudge the bowl a little to snap her out of it and get her to go to the top for air. I haven't seen this happen in the breeder box at all, though. It only happens when she's in a bowl.

Salt Baths + water changes every day. A bit of Bettafix help promote fin regrowth. Put her in a hospital tank to make the treatment easier.

If she doesn't show any improvement in the next couple of days, you may have to start her on medicine. But I would recommend Maracyn+Maracyn 2 in combination, follow the instructions and treat her for 5 days and than 2 days off. If she needs further treatment, give her another week. If it's not getting any better after two weeks, move up to ampicillin or penicillin.

At this point, when she recovers she'll require frequent water changes for the rest of her life because the prolong treatment with medicine has reduced her resistance to the disease. Although I'm attempting to get some Gel-Tek Ultra Gro VX to test and see if it'll help, cause it is supposed to boost a fish's immune system with vitamins (since I have a few fish that need special treatment because they're prone to relapses if I don't do frequent water changes) therefore hypothetically enabling them to be in a healthy enough condition to fight off the disease (since normally betta fish can fight fin rot by themselves, but in the case where they're under stress, the likeliness of them getting sick is higher.)

But I'm sure she'll recover just fine. I'm just telling you everything you'll need to know :) Just remember to keep the water clean!

the ragged fins sounds like fin rot. were they frayed? black edges? take a look at what i just posted for bluey's fin rot. there's a photo there and it's definitely fin rot. you'll need to treat that with antibiotics but you don't want to let it get to her body because it doesn't just stop at the fins. it will keep going and end up being quite deadly.
i've heard really good things about atison's betta spa . it's an indian almond leaf extract that promotes healing, etc. i'm trying it out now on my guys to promote their fin healing. good luck, irene!